The man who pleaded guilty last year to murdering Sherry Black in 2010 was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday without the possibility of parole.
Third District Judge Randall Skanchy said the sentence was “straightforward” given the spontaneous, “egregious nature” of the crime. It’s also the sentence that Black’s family members, who spoke in the courtroom through tears, said they wanted.
Black’s husband, Earl, found her body on Nov. 30, 2010, in their home and bookstore in South Salt Lake, known as B&W Billiards & Books. She was partially naked, with lacerations on her head and neck. A pair of scissors was lodged in her chest. Police found signs that she had been sexually assaulted.
Days and weeks, then months and years passed without a lead in the case. But in 2016, DNA evidence identified the genetic history of the assailant. Adam Antonio Durborow, 30, was arrested four years later in 2020 and in October pleaded guilty to aggravated murder.
Durborow was 19 years old at the time, and, according to defense attorney Heidi Buchi, “very angry,” noting that he had endured things “no child should go through.”
But, she added, ”That is not an excuse. He does not have an excuse. He’s not offering an excuse. He knows what he did was wrong.”
“That’s why he cooperated and pled guilty as charged,” she continued. In the years since he killed Black, his remorse had only increased, Buchi said.
She asked the judge to impose a sentence of 25 years to life in prison, which would have included the possibility of parole.
Family members told Skanchy on Wednesday that Sherry Black’s killing left a hole in their family. Grandchildren lost not only their grandmother, but their mother and grandpa who were consumed by grief after Black’s death.
When Earl Black found his wife that day, it broke him, they said. He never slept in the couple’s home again, where they had lived for more than 40 years. He stopped attending family events, ones that he and his wife had never missed before.
Family said if Duborow received a sentence that put him up for parole in 25 years, they wouldn’t be able to move on — just like they hadn’t been able to get closure for the last decade, wondering if their matriarch’s killer was someone they knew, or standing in line behind them at the grocery store.
As Earl Black took the stand Wednesday, he told Skanchy, “I don’t have it together too well.” He got one sentence out before he broke into sobs.
“For 11 years, I have had to live without Sherry,” he said. “My life will never be the same.”
He said he didn’t want anyone else to go through what he and his family have felt in the past decade.
“Put him away,” he said. “Please.”
Before announcing the sentence, the judge said Sherry Black “would have wanted our hearts to grow with love, rather than shrink from animosity.”
“And I hope that today, as part of this, that you get that,” he continued. “And I hope, Mr. Durborow, you get that too.”
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/v6hMsW8
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